Startup’s new helmet gets top safety rating but has yet to take hold among players, even amid heightened attention to links between football and head trauma
y most measures, the startup helmet manufacturer called Vicis couldn’t have gotten off to a better start. The Seattle firm attracted more than $40 million in funding, its first product tested better for safety than any helmet in NFL history, and several high-profile players signed on as investors, reports The Wall Street Journal. And yet, in the first season in which the helmets are available, few NFL players are wearing them. About 50 of the league’s 1,700 players—roughly 3%—took the field in week 1 in a Vicis helmet, according to the company.
A separate company, called Xenith and funded by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, isn’t doing much better in the pro ranks. Xenith has three of the top six performing helmets, according to the NFL’s metrics, but only about 7.5% of NFL players wear its products, The Journal reported
The rest of the league’s players are wearing helmets from Riddell, which has about 55% of the NFL market as well as league licensing deal for collectible merchandise, or Schutt. Those two helmet manufacturers have long outfitted most NFL players. Both say they have released new helmets with added safety features, with two Schutt models ranking just behind Vicis in safety tests.
The figures show how even at a time when more attention than ever is being paid to the links between football and head trauma, changes to equipment and the way the game is played are likely to come slowly.
